Firemen and Helpers

Jeffrey has been so excited. On Monday, he got to visit the fire station. He came home full of information, and filled us in, to the minutest detail. Yesterday, Tuesday, at school, his teacher gave him a fireman's hat because he returned his homework. When he got home from school, she donned this "get-up". His outfit consisted of his hat, boots, coat, gloves, and "oxygen tank" (his back-pack). He was excited to go to school today because they were going to be turning his classroom into a fire station. I'm anxious to hear all he has to say today when he gets home.
And Makayla, just recently, has been helping the children with their chores, more specifically, emptying the dishwasher. Here she is, hard at work. She thinks that she is the biggest duck in the puddle.

Talking to WHO?

Tonight we had read a story to the children, prayed with them, they had enjoyed their snack, and we had given them eight minutes to be in their beds. After a few minutes, I saw that the bathroom light was on so I went in there to see who was still up. As I walked into the bathroom, DaNae was standing in front of the mirror. I walked in and pointed to the clock and said, "You're supposed to be getting in bed". She said "I had to go to the bathroom". I said, "You weren't going to the bathroom when you were making faces in the mirror". She said, "I was talking to my twin sister!" I thought that I would burst out laughing. My, my, my!!! You just never know what is going to come out of their mouths.

First Ponytail!!!!

Last night when we were getting ready for church (revival), I decided to try to put Makayla's hair in a ponytail. She held very still while I put it in, and surprisingly enough, she did not touch it one time. I figured she would try to pull it right out. Anyway, we tried to get her picture. It didn't turn out real well, but maybe if you look real close you can see it. I just had to take a picture. And as you can tell, she LOVES to have her picture taken.

Makayla and I are both feeling better, but now Paul has really got it bad. Jeffrey's had a cold for two weeks now. I think we're just all run down after the holidays, etc. Looking forward to Spring!!!!

Card Making

I haven't felt good the past several days, just dealing with a bad cold. So I decided to "sit" and do something that I enjoy. Some of you know that I love to scrapbook. Doesn't seem like I get to do it much these days. Anyway, I tried my hand at card making, and finished these up today. They are Valentine Card/invitations. I really had fun and I was real happy with the way they turned out. I love Valentines' day anyway, and this was a good excuse to try my hand at something a little different. (If you click on the picture it will enlarge it and you can see the detail much better.)

Birthday Boy

Jeffrey turned six yesterday, but we celebrated it on Friday night so that Grandma and Grandpa, aunts, uncles, cousins, friends and other family could enjoy the celebration. We had a house full of company, which made for an interesting evening, to say the least. Jeffrey had a dinosaur theme for his birthday this year. His cake had two dinosaurs on it that actually lit up and made some vicious sounding noises. Here is a picture of the birthday boy waiting to blow out his candles.

Here are a couple of pictures of the table and room decorations. I used his new slippers as "candle holders" and they went well with the theme. I added a "safari" hat, and binoculars to add to the effect.

We had "vines" growing everywhere. He really like it all.

He had a couple of his buddies over to help him celebrate. Here are the three musketeers. From l-r, Jeffrey, Dylan Waggoner and Ethan Wilhelm. They had a great time playing cowboys and shooting Jeffrey's new cap guns. Dylan didn't get to spend the night, but I know that Ethan and Jeffrey slept like logs. They simply wore themselves out. (Looks like a lot of mischief to me, what about you?)

On Friday night my cousin and her husband from the southern part of the state came and spent the night with us. On Saturday we went north to Fair Oaks Dairy Farm and everyone enjoyed the "mooooooving" experience. It is very educational and the kids never seem to get tired of seeing it all again and again. My cousin, Lori, and her husband Jamie, are getting ready to make a huge move. They are moving to Alabama where he will begin a new career with Hyundai. We are excited for them in this new adventure they are about to embark on. We had a wonderful time with them, and we all hated to see them go. The children really loved spending time with them. (He used to play the piano for Tony Gore and Majesty in case he looks familiar to anyone.)

Sunday was another busy day with church and company again. Tonight we started revival with Steven and Nichole, so this week will prove to be another busy one as well. Please pray for Makayla. She is struggling with a really bad cough with some squeaks in her lungs. Paul figures she probably has pneumonia/RSV. We've been giving her breathing treatments three times a day. Hopefully tomorrow will be better, if not, we may make a trip to the doctor. It was just a little over a year ago that we spent a week in the hospital with RSV. I'm not ready for a repeat. Take care, everyone, and thanks for taking the time to stop by.

Still Here

It's been a very busy week since I last blogged, and I just wanted everyone to know that I'm still among the living. Jeffrey started at a new school on Tuesday, so there has been a lot to do to get him ready for that. Monday Paul decorated another wedding cake for a girl in our church. On Tuesday evening she got married. I've posted a couple of pictures of the cake. Everything turned out real nice.

Imporvising for a "cake topper".Here is one of the "reception coordinators". Must be she had just had "enough". Finally time to hit the bottle. Actually she was taste testing the punch and there were no cups around to put it in.

Of course, last night was church, tonight is WOW, tomorrow night we are having a house full of company to celebrate Jeffrey's 6th birthday. Also, my cousin and her husband are coming, and they will be spending the night and the day with us on Saturday. Sunday will be more company and fellowship as well as worship and maybe a little nap. I'll plan to post pictures of the weekend at the beginning of the week. Have a great weekend, everyone!

Little "Smiley"

Too cute for words (I know I'm prejudice). Hope this brightens your day like it did mine.

My "Medical" Family

Today the children were playing and Jeffrey was the "sick and afflicted" one. Makayla got a wagon for Christmas. It was his hospital bed or stretcher or something. Anyway, DaNae was his nurse, and as you can see, he has a "broken" leg, and she used a mask to hold the "cold pack" on his head. As you can tell by the picture, the nurse looks like she's hurting more than the patient. Anyway, they had a good time.

They had to dress Makayla up as a "nurse" as well. I thought she looked so cute.Then, when Paul got home he brought a "bunny suit" home for the children to play with. Jonathan came out and said "I'm daddy's twin. I'm Paul Durgan." He had found an old pair of Paul's glasses. I had to take their picture so that you could see just how much they DO look alike.
As for me today, browned several pounds of hamburger to put in the freezer to have on hand. I love having it already cooked, so that when I'm fixing supper, that step is already complete. It just helps to speed the whole dinner process along. I also put several dozen frozen "clumps" of cookie dough in the freezer to have to pull out when we want some "fresh" cookies, and I don't have time to mix up the dough. Also, I've been basking in the Lord's presence as He has been ministering to me through a new CD that I received for Christmas. I truly am amazed that He loves me, and I'm amazed how He cares. He is an awesome God.

I'm BACK...Finally!!!

Well, you may ask where have I been? For the first three or four weeks I was just too busy to blog. Then when I did finally take the time to sit down to blog, I couldn't get any pictures to upload, and was having trouble...so I just quit for the night. Then several more days/weeks went by and I tried again, and for some reason could not access my blog. My password/sign in name all seemed invalid...thus the new blog address. I apologize for this, but if I was going to blog again, this was the only way I knew to get things going again.

Where do I begin to catch up on the past three months? There is no way that I can include everything. Life has been soooooo busy, as I'm sure everyone of you can attest too. While looking through my pictures, I've decided to just hit the "highlights" of the past three months, and then I'll try to start doing better from here on out.

It all started going down hill when I was totally swamped decorating for the Faith Investment Dinner at UBC. This was my first year to take on such a responsibility, but it all came together very well. Here is a picture of part of the entry way.

Here are the decorations behind the head table.

Then in late November, Makayla turned one year old. It's so hard to believe that a whole year has come and gone. Here is a picture of her enjoying her cake. I also thought that it was sooo cute, when it came time for her to blow out her candle, she did it without any help. She loves to go around the house, and when she sees a candle burning, she tries to blow them out. She's growing up.

Then in mid-December, DaNae performed in her very first violin recital. Here she is (sorry the quality isn't better) playing her solo. She played "Amazing Grace" with a soundtrack, and she did wonderfully. She has a great teacher (she prayed for a violin teacher for two years), and the Lord sent Sara Fry to our church, and DaNae's prayers were answered.

Then there was Christmas with all of its activities. Here are just a few pictures of the holiday season. Here is our family picture Christmas Sunday.

Just one picture of some of my house decorations. You can see one tree (of six) in the background. Last year I didn't do much decorating because I was pregnant, but this year we were back in the swing of things.
Here's a picture taken on Christmas day. It is my dad, and my brother-in-law, Mark and my niece, Elizabeth, along with Paul and our two boys. Then this past week Paul flew to Minneapolis for work. Here he is in the cockpit of a 747. Paul asked if he could take a picture of it, and the pilot invited him to sit down in the seat, and he would take the picture. Jonathan was quite impressed, I must say. Paul has dreamed of being a pilot for a long time. Maybe someday that dream will come true.

Also, right around Christmas, Makayla got two teeth in on the top, and then they both got extremely infected. Paul took her to the dentist, and he put her on an antibiotic. Thankfully that cleared up good, but Sunday afternoon she started with the stomach flu. I think that things are finally back to normal again. She seems to be feeling much better. Below is a picture that Danae took of her a few days ago.

Thanks to all who cared enough to drop by. I'll try to do better from now on. Let me know you were here.